The Queen Of Small Heath

Wall Street Stock Exchange.

Auroras POV

I walk into my living room to see Isaiah, Finn and Aberama sat on my couch, Finn holding on a blanket as Aberama squeezes his arm, blood oozing out. "The fuck?" I question as I walk over to them. "Take this." Isaiah says handing him a glass of whiskey.

Finn chugs it handing the bottle of to me, as I hold it in my lap and he grips my hand tightly as I sit beside him. He winces at Aberama's prodding as I shake my head. "Got tweezers, Lioness?" Aberama asks me and I nod at sowing kit Linda had gave to me.

Taking the whiskey from me, he drenched the tweezers, letting Finn take another gulp. "Ziah, come on." I sigh pinning one of Finns shoulders down as Isaiah pins down the other. "Hold him, hold him." Aberama tells us, putting the tweezers into the wound, digging around for the bullet as Finn screams, clutching my hand and thrashing in our grip.

"Here you go." Aberama breaths out, holding up the bullet. "Isaiah, go to the cupboard, there's some shirts and cloths." I instruct. "Now, what the fuck is going on?" I ask, looking between the three of them as Isaiah chucks a top at Finn, who had unbuttoned his and removed it. He uses it to clean his arm before taking the cloth and wrapping it around then puts on the new one. Aberama explains that Finn went with them to take down the Chinese pimp Tommy told me about.

"Finn, you fucking dipshit. Three inches to the left and that would've been you gone." I scold as I smack the back of his head making him groan. "You've got nothing to prove, Finn. Nothing. So stay out of the fucking sporting stuff." I say, giving him a pointed look.

The phone rings and Isaiah picks it up, his eyebrows furrowing as he looks at me. "Rory, it's Arthur. He's says it's urgent." He tells me and I sigh, getting up and walking over to him. "Arthur?" I say into the phone. "It crashed. 6am, the Wall Street stock exchange crashed." He tells me.

"Tommy told Michael this was going to happen. It shouldn't affect us." I reply. "He held on, Rory. Said a broker advised him it was gonna bounce back up." He responds. "So he chose not to listen to his boss or family and instead to a stranger?" I say. "Yeah. Look, Tommys ordered a full meeting for the board of directors tomorrow at noon, so I'll see you soon." He says before hanging up.

"That kid just doesn't listen does he." I sigh, shaking my head. "Who?" Finn asks me. "Michael. Tommy and I both told him to drop out but he held on and at 6 o'clock this morning, the Wall Street sock exchange crashed, like a steam train and we were most definitely on board." I tell them, sitting back down. "Board of directors meeting tomorrow at noon. Goodness knows how that will go." I add.

******

"How far have we got?" Tommy asks as we walk into the room, before he sits at the head of the table, opposite Arthur and pulls me onto his lap, wrapping his arm around my waist. "We've established that ladies are decorative." Ada tells him. "Actually, Arthur has some documents he'd like to hand out." Linda speaks. "What documents?" Tommy asks.

"I was just explaining to everyone Tom, that, erm...well, we're fucked, ain't that right?" Arthur says. "Yes and no." Tommy replies, clearing his throat before lighting the cigarette that hangs lightly between his lips. "It is true that a large proportion of the company's funds were invested into American stocks and shares." Tommy adds as I take the cigarette, taking a drag as he smirks at me and I hand it back to him.

"Invested or hidden?" Linda questions. "All investments are approved by the board, Linda." I tell her. "Only the ones that went through the books, Rory." Linda retorts. "Linda, after this meeting, there will be another meeting, just for family." Tommy tells her. "Did we vote on this?" Linda asks. "Any member of the family can call a meeting, that's what it's for. Family matters, not business." I reply. "But in this family, is that really separate?" Linda says and Tommy squeezes my thigh to stop me from igniting an argument.